Corrections Corporation of America opens the first private immigration detention facility for the federal government in Houston

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) opened the first privately operated federal immigration detention facility in Houston, Texas in 1984, under a contract with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The facility held detained migrants in a for-profit setting, establishing the template for a detention model that would grow into a multibillion-dollar industry. CCA's founders — Thomas Beasley, Robert Crants, and Don Hutto — modeled the company on the Hospital Corporation of America, arguing that private operators could run detention cheaper than government facilities.